Indian Stores for DIY Drone Purchases¶
The world of do-it-yourself FPV drone building comes with one critically unfortunate deficiency in India - parts/spares/replacements are more often than not, unavailable, or out of stock. You could always shop from international stores such as GetFPV, but with the customs situation in our country being what it is, you may not want to go down that road. This is because of two main reasons:
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Customs charges for electronic items can range from anywhere between 41% to 78% of the total cost of the product being imported. This total cost includes shipping costs too. Unless you are okay with shelling out 1.5 to 2 times the actual actual costs, importing from reputed international stores may not be the best option for us. (If you still want to go down that route, look at the last section of this page for a list of great sites to buy from.)
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The government body that controls and regulates drone imports, DGCA, has placed a blanket-ban on civilians importing drones or drone parts. The customs department has been explicitly directed to not let any products resembling drones or drone parts through their inspections. As many of the components that we purchase would be identified easily (sometimes even explicitly declared by the shipper) as drone parts, this is a sure-fire way of inviting trouble, losing money or both.
Here are the most popular stores I would recommend purchasing from. These are Indian stores, and they come with the peace of mind that you wont be ripped off by customs at an obscene rate.
Site information¶
| Store Name | Payment options | Ships from | GST Bill | Contact Numbers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AnubisRC | UPI, RazorPay | Mumbai, MH | YES, VGST | (+91)9819030753, (+91)9321623063 |
| DRKStore | UPI, RazorPay, NetBanking, Bank Transfer, CoD | Kochi, KL | YES, VGST | +91 9778221969 |
| InsideFPV | UPI, RazorPay, Net Banking, InstaMojo, | Surat, GJ | TBD | (+91)9875279534 |
| QuadKart | UPI, RazorPay | Muvattupuzha, KL | NO | (+91)8281205193 |
| QuadKopters | Net Banking, UPI, InstaMojo | Mumbai, MH | YES, VGST | (+91)8879926216 |
| RCMumbai | Net Banking, UPI, RazorPay | Mumbai, MH | TBD | (+91)7678013993, (+91)7718043333 |
| Robu | Net Banking, UPI, RazorPay | Pune, MH | YES, VGST | 1800 266 6123 |
| TheFPVProject | RazorPay | New Delhi, NCT | NO | (+91)8750446575 |
| TujoRC | UPI | Bareilly, UP | YES, VGST | (+91)9328678327 |
| XtreamRC | UPI, RazorPay | Pune, MH | NO | (+91)9611195898 |
Danger
Note that some of these stores may not have entirely legit establishments, and will not be able to provide you with a GST bill, online secure transactions, or both. If this is something that you are not happy about just go for the legit ones.
The 'GST Bill' column only tells you that the website officially claimed that they provide an authentic GST bill. You are responsible for determining this for yourself before you purchase anything at the site to ensure that this claim they made is true or not. We also do not verify whether the seller is registered as a retailer or not. This is purely a repository of information and we expect you to make your own well-informed decisions when making online transactions.
Legend¶
| Abbreviation | Expansion | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| TBD | To be Determined | A query has been made with the website using regular channels of communication (email/Instagram/site-chat) |
| DNR | Did not Respond | The website did not respond to my query (Possibly the site does not provide GST bill) |
| YES | Yes | The Website confirmed that they do provide an authentic GST bill. |
| NO | No | The Website confirmed that they do NOT provide a GST bill at the moment. |
| VGST | Verified GST | GST ID provided by seller in their invoice is valid as per the Indian Govt. Taxpayer search Tool |